


Roots Run Deep (Kylo Ren x Reader)

by daphnethewriter



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 13:25:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13342167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnethewriter/pseuds/daphnethewriter
Summary: Stranded... injured... Kylo Ren finds himself alone on an uncharted planet. There shouldn't be anything there.But you are.On a world that has never seen stars, the unknown lurks only in the miles of forest below your treetop village. Yet you gaze up at the endless clouds with reverence.A burning, black impossibility falls from the sky, bringing with it a man and all the wonders of a universe you never knew existed.





	Roots Run Deep (Kylo Ren x Reader)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, friends. Please enjoy <3

Sparks showered from the console of Kylo Ren's TIE fighter. It was lilting, the back of the left wing damaged and streaming flames. He would have to put down on the uncharted planet. There was nothing else in the system. Nothing. No moons, no asteroids, no stations, no starships. Just two stars with one planet swinging between.

A thick atmosphere covered it, impenetrable by scanners. No telling what it hid. Uncharted planets were dangerous like that. It could be barren. It could be toxic. It could be deadly. But the void of space meant a certain death—the planet… less so. Kylo Ren had a knack for survival. And more than a few reasons for it.

#

You sat at the edge of your treetop balcony, watching the canopy sway under you. It reached off into the distance, as far as the horizon. Trees. Trees. Tress and clouds, nothing more.

Behind you, among the canopy proper, the village celebrated with food and drink. From every balcony, in every bridge and walkway, across the branches strung with life, their singing and shouts joined the chorus of forest birds.  Voices echoed through the leaves, fading long before they reached the forest floor miles below. The joy warmed your back, but you sought the cooling calm of the forest's ebb and flow. Further off, a blue-billed bird let out a string of colorful notes that danced against the wind. You responded in kind.

"You should be inside," said a deep, kind voice over your shoulder, "celebrating your success." Your father joined you on the balcony, sitting next to you and swinging his legs over the side.

"I had no success. Kalyle was the one who was victorious."

"Kalyle said the tree moved."

"Trees do that."

"My sweet little leaf…" He set a warm hand on your shoulder. "Did you—"

You stopped him. "Don't ask questions when you don't want to know the answer."

"I see." He cleared his throat. "You know—"

"If I can recite the speech for you," you said, "will you spare me from hearing it again?"

He closed his mouth with a sigh. You sat with him in silence, watching the trees sway forward in back in time with the changing breeze. The leaves of a nearby branch tickled your toes. Heavy clouds loomed over the canopy, a shifting, swirling field of grey. Every moment was just like this: grey clouds above, green leaves below, an ever-present haze of light, broken only by the dancing shadows. Every moment bled into the next, all the same.

A powerful fear swept through you, like every nerve stood on end… You stood, eyes fixed to the sky above.

Your father scrambled to his feet beside you, looking about like a creature sensing danger on the wind. "What is it?"

_Something's coming._

A high whine reverberated through the trees, shaking the wood on which you stood. You grabbed for the railing to steady yourself. The sounds of the nearby merriment cut off into cries of worry. The noise grew, filling the air around you until there was nothing else. It vibrated through you, raising the feeling inside you to a fever pitch.

"Get down, Papa." You dropped to a crouch and dragged your father after you by his wrist.

The sky ripped apart, clouds turning fiery red as a… a… _thing_ plunged out of them. It was sharp and black, like nothing you'd ever seen, and trailed smoke and sparks.

Roots below and clouds above… what _was_ that thing?

It crashed into the deeper trees with an explosion like thunder. You flinched back as the trees splintered and cracked in its path. Something flared at the corner of your mind, the flicker of a flame, there and gone and back again. Life.

You surged to your feet. "There's someone in there." You swung over the balcony railing and down to the waiting limbs below.

"Wait!" Papa called after you.

Too late. You caught on a larger branch and hoisted yourself back up. You flitted through the trees, lighting from one limb to the next, feet finding their footing as if the branches rose up to meet them. You raced through the trees, never seeing more than a few feet in front of you—sure that the necessary path would show itself to you through the foliage.

The trees ended in an abrupt cliff of splintered edges and burning bark. The… thing had scored a path through the forest like a jagged scar. It smoldered at the end of its destructive path, resting against the leaning trunks that had finally stopped it and the branches that kept it from falling into the depths below. All around you, the scent of smoking leaves and metal burned your nostrils.

You slid and scurried down the side of your tree. The life was inside the fallen thing. And it _had_ fallen. From the clouds. Where nothing else had fallen before. There was nothing beyond the clouds. So where had it come from?

#

Kylo Ren's hands groped at the harnesses holding him into the death trap that was the remains of his TIE fighter. Blood soaked his vision and every part of his body ached in the aftermath of the crash. But he was alive and he would remain that way if he could get out of the harness and away from the fighter before it exploded. The wailing alarms and blinking red lights told him he didn't have long. The drives had overloaded. The system was crashing. He had minutes, if not seconds.

Silence crashed over the scene. Time slowed around him as he felt the familiar force connection tying him to Rey. _Not now._ He struggled against the pull into the space between their minds.

She sat up with a jolt, startled from repose by his interruption. "What do you want?" she snapped as she turned to him. She saw him. She must have. Her eyes widened, concern washing out the fury. "What's going on?" Pain sliced through him, flowing across the connection and into Rey. "Ben!" She surged toward him.

With a monumental effort, Kylo wrenched from her, severing the connection and slamming back into awareness. The hands reached through the broken front of the TIE fighter. He struggled again with the harness, finally getting free, and someone dragged him through the exit. He stumbled from the wreckage, injuries screaming in protest. He collapsed a few paces away.

A single thread of calm pierced the chaos, grounding him. A startling pair of green eyes came into view. A human? What was a human doing on an uncharted planet?

You searched his face. Your mouth moved, but the words were unfamiliar. Kylo's translator burst with static. You spoke again and the translator whirred, processing the unknown words, learning with the exposure. Your gaze darted back toward the wreckage. You pulled at him, dragging him away. The movement wrenched his injuries and he cried out with the sudden pain. Still, you moved him with surprising strength, dragging him from danger across an interlocked net of branches.

The TIE fighter exploded, rocking him. He winced back, but no shrapnel struck. The Force flexed and shifted around him, but he hadn't… His balance turned and, for a moment, he teetered on an unknown ledge before your arms dragged him back.

You spoke again and this time the translator stuck. "Are you alright?"

No. Not at all, but he was alive.

The translator struggled with a new phrase, finally cutting in with "—from? Who are you?"

An uncharted planet, an unknown people. Enemies all around. No First Order to back him up. Still, you had pulled him from the wreckage. You looked at him with genuine concern. He couldn't rely on his power and, if anything, his reputation would eliminate all the sympathy in your eyes. "I'm Ben."

#

He was lying. At least… he thought he was. You couldn't get clear thoughts from him. It was a tangle of things, the feelings around it, but it wasn't the truth.

Shouts echoed through the trees from above. You looked up to see a skimmer floating on the canopy that lined the edge of the scar, members of the village crowded at its bow.

You hailed them, waving with a happy yell. The man—Ben, for now—was injured. He would need the kind of care best provided in the village. His lies could wait.


End file.
